Brett is a member of IRE/NICAR – Investigative Reporters and Editors/National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting – and, a member of the Society for Professional Journalists, national and the Oklahoma Chapter.

Free Press became a member of LION Publishers association in 2017. LION stands for local, independent, online news.

Free Press will depend heavily on input from engaged subscribers for ideas and guidance. “Our and we” will be style standards when referring to Free Press because loyal readers’ input is so important to our editorial policies.

Our focus is on street-level news from and about Oklahoma City. It’s people, cultures, neighborhoods and government will be the source of our news.

Currently, Brett does everything, including web design and social media. He has a deep commitment to gathering the news in person and keeping up with sources far beyond the story.

Prior to founding Free Press, Brett was an independent writer for Red Dirt Report, Oklahoma Gazette, 405 Magazine, and Territory magazine. Links for all of his work can be found at brettdickerson.net.

He has a long history of being a photographer. His experiences reach all the way back to high school where he was the yearbook photographer in his senior year developing his own film and photos in a converted bathroom-turned-darkroom of his parents home.

Brett grew up on a farm at Piedmont, graduated Cum Laude from Oklahoma City University, graduated from Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, and spent the next 15 years serving as a pastor in the United Methodist Church.

He then went back to school while driving a taxi in the Oklahoma City metro.

Once he gained certification in seven subjects within the Social Studies, he went to work for the next 16 years as a public school teacher in Oklahoma City Public Schools, Chickasha PS and Edmond PS. Two teaching assignments were in alternative schools.

He was chosen site Teacher of the Year by his colleagues at Boulevard Academy, Edmond Public Schools’ alternative school.

Brett took early retirement from public school teaching to have time and energy to write more and learn news reporting. During that time he taught in online schools for Advanced Academics, Inc. and in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program for Oklahoma City Community College.